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Under pointed questioning before a House subcommittee, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s acting CEO acknowledged the organization had not exercised its authority enough to enforce policies and procedures to prevent sexual abuse.

The leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee and other sports are answering questions on Capitol Hill on how they plan to protect athletes from sexual abuse. (May 23)
AP

Susanne Lyons, acting chief executive officer and president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, left, and Kerry Perry, President and CEO of USA Gymnastics, testify during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing May 23.(Photo: Al Drago, for USA TODAY)

WASHINGTON – Under pointed questioning before a House subcommittee, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s acting CEO acknowledged the organization had not exercised its authority enough to enforce policies and procedures to prevent sexual abuse.

Before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sport leaders – including the USOC’s Susanne Lyons – on Wednesday explained their efforts to protect young athletes in the wake of sexual abuse scandals in several sports.

Over nearly three hours, the representatives pressed Lyons and the heads of the national governing bodies for gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo and volleyball on the Olympic movement’s failure to prevent abuse.

It also focused on the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a year-old entity set up by the USOC, and its ability to address misconduct with limited resources.

“It’s clear that the systems designed to protect athletes from abusers failed,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., echoing the sentiment of many on the committee.

In response to questions, Lyons acknowledged that failure.

“I think the athletes do continue to inspire all Americans,” Lyons said. “I think sadly, the institutions that support those athletes have not inspired confidence, trust or have lived up to our mission and values. We deeply regret that that has occurred. And that is one reason we are embarking on all the action plans we have discussed. The athletes deserve to have everyone believe the work that they do and what the Olympics stands for should be held in the highest esteem, and we let them down.”

It was the fourth Congressional hearing on the topic in the past 14 months, and it follows up on an investigation launched by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in January.

The USOC has previously taken the position that it has limited authority over the NGBs, which function as their own organizations to administer their sport.

On Wednesday, Lyons acknowledged that the organization has authority under the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act to set further requirements on the NGBs.

“I think the act gives us a much broader authority than we’ve exercised in the past,” Lyons said.

The USOC used that authority to require the NGBs to meet minimum standards in their SafeSport policies in 2013. And it required them to use the Center for SafeSport when it opened last March, giving the center exclusive jurisdiction over sexual misconduct cases.

But the representatives pointed to a USOC-funded audit last year that found that the vast majority of NGBs had SafeSport policies that were deficient with minimum standards.

The representatives pushed the USOC to use greater authority to require the NGBs to do things to publish lists of banned coaches. Currently only 12 of the 49 recognized NGBs do.

“Keeping banned lists is a complicated issue. At the same time, we need to figure it out and we need to ensure that centralized information is provided by every single NGB and that it’s accessible to the public,” Lyons said. “It has not happened to date and I regret that we did not exercise more of our authority to enforce that as a standard for the NGBs prior to this.”

The USOC did use its authority in the case of USA Gymnastics, albeit belatedly.

After reports that the USOC became aware of abuse by Larry Nassar, the longtime USA Gymnastics team doctor and a physician at Michigan State, in the summer of 2015, the USOC in January set a series of criteria USA Gymnastics had to meet or risk being de-certified.

CEO Kerry Perry gave her first public comments since joining USA Gymnastics in December. She did not answer questions about the organization’s handling of the Nassar case, instead referring to an ongoing investigation by Boston-based law firm Ropes & Gray that is looking into USA Gymnastics’ and the USOC’s handling of the case.

Perry took over the embattled national governing body on Dec. 1 after Steve Penny was forced to resign in March last year following an Indianapolis Star investigation into USA Gymnastics handling of sexual abuse cases.

Representatives also questioned SafeSport’s independence. While the organization was founded and is largely funded by the USOC, U.S. Center for SafeSport CEO Shellie Pfohl said it makes decisions without USOC influence.

The USOC announced in February that it would double its SafeSport contributions to the center through 2020, a change that upped its financial support from $1.55 million to $3.1 million.

Despite that, the center’s staff of 14 has fielded more than 800 reports since it opened in March 2017, and representatives expressed concern that it would not have enough resources to adequately handle those cases.

“This committee is fully supportive of what your organization was established to do,” Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. “Whatever money you need to actually do your work, please let us know and we will help with you and the USOC and other organizations to make sure you get that.”